One Day Remains
by nazzy and jerkez
Summary: In the hours that seperated their birthdays, Ino ponders about stars, suns and clouds with Shikamaru — ShikaIno


**One Day Remains:**

**Summary: The night between September 22 and September 23, Ino sees Shikamaru on a rooftop. 'If you are a cloud, Shikamaru, am I a star?' [ShikaIno, for irrationalism**

**A/N: Yeah, birthday fic for Shikamaru and Ino! HURRAY!**

**Dedication: irrationalism, also known as Ailey-chan, and she's one of my favorite people in the world! Although she deserves a better fanfiction than this. SORRY AIL-CHAN!**

Timeline: They're seventeen. Or something like that.

And, (dun, dun, dun) Sasuke's back!

**Just a little oneshot. Let's see where this will end.  
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** One Day Remains  
Nara Shikamaru x Yamanaka Ino**

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The clock was 23:11 PM. It was dark outside, and although it was still autumn (sort of), it was very, very cold. Ino had her gloves on, but being Ino, she had chosen them after its design, not the material. Therefore, she wouldn't mind having mittens right now.

As she closed her eyes, pretending to be in her room, in her bed, she heard something.

She was in the streets of Konoha. It was nothing special that day, if Shikamaru's birthday party would count as "nothing special".

To be honest, Shikamaru _wanted _his birthday to be "nothing special"; he wanted it to be over as quickly as possible, actually.

But, with Yamanaka Ino as one of his best friends, he just couldn't have it the way he wanted.

No, _no, _because this is Yamanaka Ino we're talking about! Her middle name is "loud". What in the world could make Shikamaru think that he was going to sleep throughout that day?

As Ino proudly smiled, ignoring the noise she heard a couple of seconds ago, she rubbed her hands against her bare arms, in an attempt to make herself warmer.

She was so stupid; to think that an evening with Sakura wouldn't end up at a bar. Yeah, Sakura was still in love with Sasuke, Sasuke was still a bastard (colder than a polar bear on ice skates), and didn't even _thank _her for saving his cold ass from being killed by Orochimaru.

Ino didn't think about Sasuke nowadays. It was _his _problem if he didn't see the things that were hanging in front of his nose. Not hers.

Well, partly hers, since this is _Sakura _we're talking about, and Ino is her best friend.

Right after Shikamaru's party, Sakura decided to visit a bar.

And she dragged along Ino.

And Ino dragged along Tenten (she accidentally grabbed the nearest arm to help her, but Tenten was practically _longing _for a drink with the girls), and Tenten took Hinata's hand and dragged her along too.

So, there they were. Drinking and talking. Laughing and drinking.

Drinking and...drinking.

Although this time, INO was the one that decided to stay sober. She was just enjoying seeing her best friends take more sake, while she said 'no' every time the bartender asked the girls.

Tenten was like Sakura. But, hey, you couldn't blame them; both of them were hopelessly in love with two cold bastards, who didn't even know how to spell 'love'. Of course they loved to drink their problems away.

Hinata also stayed sober, although she had her little moments were she talked like a normal person, without the stuttering and asked for some help to win a certain blonde-haired shinobi's heart.

Ino was stupid enough to think that it still was summer, and decided to wear the same dress she wore at Shikamaru's party, a brown, thin summer dress with details like white flowers on, and the dress ended right below her knees. With that, she wore black stiletto heels, and THAT made her walking a little more difficult (and the alcohol didn't help her with that either).

She decided to say goodbye to the other girls as Hinata helped Tenten with walking home, and Ino had followed Sakura home already. So, now she was all alone.

She then heard a noise again.

"'Cause you have..._stolen _my heart." someone muttered from the sky, and Ino directed her gaze to the house in front of her.

No, not from there. As Ino heard more muttering, she looked up at the sky. And, yes indeed, someone sat there.

On the roof. _  
_

'_What the hell?' _Ino thought, as she saw the figure move, and the legs she saw hanging from the roof disappeared.

"Um, hello?"

"You have stolen...stolen my heart."

It was in THAT moment she realized what song this person was singing. It was the same song she had played like a thousands times on Shikamaru's birthday party.

She took a chance.

"Shikamaru?"

She could practically hear the person stop breathing up there.

"...what?"

JACKPOT!

"J-just wait there!"

To be honest, Ino was ecstatic. She hadn't seen Shikamaru at the party a lot, since hearing from Chouji that Shikamaru didn't like the sound (from the song Ino played at the party) and locked himself in his room for hours.

As Ino climbed at the ladder that led to the roof (the building was nothing important, some sort of storage, maybe), she was greeted by no one other than the birthday kid himself.

"Shikamaru, are you singing "Stolen" by Dashboard Confessional?"

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"So, you fled from the party to sit and stare at the clouds?" Ino teased him, as Shikamaru grunted something that suspiciously sounded like "Maybe".

"But, Shikamaru...to look at the stars are so much more fun. And, there aren't any clouds right now."

"Yeah, but looking at the stars aren't making me relaxed at all, Ino. They're just making me stressed, and... They're too bright for my taste."

"Too bright? You mean like my _hair?_"

"No. You don't have to take everything I say as I'm talking about your looks." Shikamaru sighed as Ino playfully stuck out her tongue, as she said 'just joking with you.'

"So...clouds are relaxing, and you enjoy looking at them?"

"Something like that, yes."

"And, stars are _too _bright for your taste and take all the attention at night?"

"Well, yeah."

"But, Shikamaru...if you're a cloud, am I a star?"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, and shot a glance at the girl right next to him, that were gazing at the stars up above him.

"You think so?" he asked her, getting her attention.

"Well...clouds are quite nice and they're _nice _to look at."

"Ino, are you-"

"Hush, I'm not finished." Ino smiled as she continued talking. "Sometimes, you enjoy being with the sun that you're mad as soon the cloud gets in the way of the sun. Although sometimes, the cloud is just... helping you."

"...helping you?"

"Yeah... so you're not getting used at being around the sun all the time and to not get sun burned."

"Ino, you DO know that clouds are just a visible mass of condensed droplets?"

"Of course I know that, you lazy idiot. But, are you getting my point?"

"Are you _flirting _with me, Ino?" Shikamaru asked as he once again raised an eyebrow and gave Ino a glance. Ino looked away and said, "Why should I?", as Shikamaru snickered.

"What time is it, by the way?" Ino asked, in a sudden attempt to change subject.

"Um, I dunno...maybe 23:30?"

"It's my birthday tomorrow..."

"Ino, I know. We've shared birthdays since we were four."

"But not this time."

"Yeah, it was kind of weird."

Ino started to stand up as she decided to walk home. She looked at Shikamaru. "Are you coming with me?"

"I'm going the other way. Chouji asked me to sleep at his house. It was something special."

"Oh, right...well then, goodbye." As she waved to him, she smiled.

A smile where her eyes were shimmering with stars and laughter that even Aphrodite couldn't match (if you'd ask Shikamaru, that is).

DAMN IT, DO SOMETHING!

"Ino! Wait!" Shikamaru climbed down the ladder to see that Ino hadn't gone too far. She turned around as she saw him walking to her.

"What?"

"You said that clouds are better than the sun, right?"

"Right..." she said, not getting his point.

"Then let me say this..." And then he bent down (since now, she was shorter than him and a good bit too) and whispered something in her ear. After that, he walked away with a smile on his lips all the way home to Chouji.

Ino also went home, not freezing anymore.

When she finally was home, lying on her bed, she decided to take a look at the picture of Team 10.

As she glanced at Shikamaru three seconds longer than Chouji (she didn't even want to look at herself, she looked _horrible_), she realized that she had never said happy birthday to him.

The first thing she did the following morning was to demand from her father that from now on, she and Shikamaru would always share birthdays.

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'_I think stars are much prettier than the moon.'_

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**A/N:**

**What can I say? Done in a short time, since I just realized that it's Shikamaru's birthday today! Wooo!**

Like I said before, this one is for irrationalism, my own Ailey-chan. She deserves SO much better than this fanfiction, but she wrote the most beautiful SasuSaku story and ShikaIno story, I just had to show her my appreciation.

And, the sentence at the end? It was the line that Shikamaru whispered in Ino's ear, meaning that he thinks that Ino are really pretty (or you can imagine that the moon is referring to Temari, I wouldn't mind that), since she told him that she had (finally) given up on Sasuke, saying that the clouds are better than the sun.

**And, you didn't get the whole talk about stars, suns and clouds?  
Well...I thought as much as so.**

Look: Shikamaru is the cloud, coming in Ino's way to get Sasuke, the sun. Ino didn't realize that Shikamaru somehow saved her from being hurt (like Sakura is now), and that after all this time, she has realized that Shikamaru is very precious to her. 

**Remember, she asked Shikamaru if he were a cloud, she would be a star, since they take all the attention and stands out (being bright). And, Ino also thought she was a star since Shikamaru thought they were too bright, and since she knows that Shikamaru would like a "normal" life with a "normal" wife, she thought she didn't match with him.**

And, the other cold bastard that Tenten is in love with is Neji. 

**WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? I'M A LEETEN FAN, FOR CRISIS SAKE!**

Um, I'll stop my ranting now. Hope you liked the story!


End file.
